8/23 Mathieson's ROH on HDNet Live Coverage: The Embassy vs. Rasche Brown, Grizzly Redwood, and the Dark City Fight Club, Jerry Lynn vs. Kevin Steen, and the Briscoes in action

Highlights of last week's Davey Richards vs. Roderick Strong main event kicked off the show...

Mike Hogewood hyped tonight's eight-man tag main event as the Briscoes made their entrance. Their opponents were already in the ring.

1. The Briscoe Brothers defeated Bobby Shields and Alex Anthony in 5:01. The crowd was absolutely dead silent as Shields held a headscissors on Mark Briscoe. The Briscoes continued to dominate and got two on Shields with a elbow drop sideslam combination. Jay then hit the Jaydriller on Anthony and a Doomsday Device on Shields for the win.

Joe's Judgment: Don't let the length fool you, this match was not all that competitive. The crowd popped a little for a few spots but overall was just completely dead.

A video that had been "paid for by the Embassy" aired. He called "Rasheed Brown" and the "Dark City Fight Crew" bums and talked about how great the Embassy was.

2. Kevin Steen (w/Steve Corino) defeated Jerry Lynn in 12:37. Lynn got a couple armdrags and Steen dropped to the floor to converse with Corino. Lynn hit a headscissors and was immediately tripped up by Corino. Todd Sinclair kicked Corino out of ringside and Lynn got a rollup on Steen while he was protesting but Steen kicked out at two.

At 7:00, Lynn hit a rolling eye poke and then rolled Steen up for two. Steen countered the Package Piledriver into a Sharpshooter which Lynn countered into a rollup for another two count. Steen hit a Codebreaker and his pump handle neckbreaker over the knee.

Steen went up top but Lynn followed and hit a huracanrana and followed with a TKO for another nearfall. Steen hit a powerbomb and transitioned it into a Sharpshooter but Lynn made it to the ropes. Lynn got another two count at 10:20 with a top rope powerbomb.

Steen got to his feet first and hit an Alabama Slam and went for the Swanton again but Lynn got his knees up. Steen rolled to the floor and Lynn hit a swinging DDT on him there. Lynn put Steen back in the ring and went up to the top, but Rhett Titus ran out and Lynn crossbodied him instead. Shortly thereafter, Steen sat down on a sunset flip and grabbed the middle rope for the three count. Titus celebrated at ringside

Joe's Judgment: The match was pretty good. The finish was mind-numbingly bad. First, the Aries/ANX vs. Lynn feud is done. Second, why can't Steen go over Lynn clean? Does Lynn really need to be protected? For that matter, does losing to Steen after twelve and a half minutes really make Lynn look bad at all? Just an awful, awful finish to what had been a very good match.

More highlights of Strong vs. Richards aired, followed by a "HDNet Exclusive" of what happened after the show. Shane Hagadorn grabbed the mic and said that when Richards let him do his job, he was a tag champion, and when he didn't let him do his job, Davey blew it, like he did in Toronto against Tyler and against Strong that night. Davey responded by punching Hagadorn and Eddie Edwards ran out. Davey told Eddie that they were cool, but Hagadorn was history.

Hogewood took us to Kyle Durden backstage. Durden introduced Jim Cornette who said that the singles division wasn't the only place where people were talking about being the best in the world, and that the Kings of Wrestling were calling themselves the greatest tag team in the world. Cornette mentioned that Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin were once considered the world's greatest tag team, so he was able to bring them in for the match with the KOW.

Roderick Strong walked in with Truth Martini laughing. Truth told Cornette the only question was how he was going to stop the real main event from turning into a farce like last time. Truth suggested that he pick the referee, and Cornette refused.

Tyler Black then walked in and said that he had been watching the monitor and he was tired of Roderick whining, so he suggested they take the referee out of the situation altogether and make the match no DQ. Cornette refused that too, but Tyler said that if the match wasn't no DQ he would back out. Truth accepted on behalf of Roderick and Cornette reluctantly agreed. Tyler told Roderick that the NYC match would be his last chance, and Strong didn't seem concerned.

Joe's Judgment: I don't know what it is. Neither Strong nor Truth are particularly great on the mic, but they have a dynamic that works way better than I ever could have expected it to. With Tyler presumably leaving after Glory By Honor it looks like Roddy is taking the belt and honestly I think that's the right choice.

3. The Embassy (Erick Stevens, Shawn Daivari, Necro Butcher, and Ernie Osiris w/Prince Nana) defeated Rasche Brown, the Dark City Fight Club (Jon Davis and Kory Chavis), and Grizzly Redwood in 10:36. Osiris started the match for the Embassy and Chavis beat him down for a bit, then tagged in Grizzly. Grizzly got the upper hand on Osiris and the Embassy went to the floor to converse with Nana, but Brown threw Grizzly onto all four of them.

Stevens tagged in and dominated Grizzly for a while, the highlight being throwing him into a Necro punch on the outside. Grizzly tried to make a hot tag at 8:00, but the Embassy knocked all the babyfaces off the apron. Stevens continued to dominate Grizzly, who finally made the hot tag and everything broke down.

It looked like Paul Turner was going to call the match as all eight men brawled inside the ring, but the babyfaces Irish whipped all four Embassy members into each other and then all of them ganged up on Necro. Eventually everyone except Rasche was at ringside and Rasche dove onto everyone.

The finish came when Daivari and Chavis were in the ring and Nana gave Chavis a low blow from behind, allowing Daivari to roll Chavis up with a school boy for the pin. The Embassy celebrated up the ramp and a video announced Tyler Black vs. Steve Corino for next week to close the show.

Joe's Judgment: The crowd was hotter for the big brawl part of that match than anything else on tonight's show. In fairness, the heat segment was really well done and it built to a pretty satisfying brawl, but I just don't care about the Embassy or any of the guys they're feuding with. Apparently some people do, though, so whatever. Maybe if they would win clean once in a while I might get interested.

Anything you want to say about this review, ROH, or wrestling in general? Feel free to email me at jtmathieson88@gmail.com.